Yipster

Last night I complimented a friend on the way she smelled. “What are you wearing?” I asked. She told me it was a scent from a company not known for fine perfume, imagine something like “Love Etc” from The Body Shop. I was surprised. She added she also had something “nice” she wore on special occasions but couldn’t remember the name. It was Narcisco Rodriguez, but I only knew that because I’d seen it in her bathroom. Not that I was snooping but she smelled so good and not placeable so I had taken a very cursory peek. “The thing is” she said, “I’ve worn this for almost 15 years and I can’t let it go”. I shared my similair story. “I guess the hope is” she said, “that you run into someone and they smell you and it all comes rushing back.” 

“That’s happend to me!” I said, “at a wedding, granted it was with a girl I hadn’t seen in ten years and wasn’t particularly invested in any of her memories rushing back. But she had hugged me and then said, “Oh my god, you smell exactly the same”” and I felt pleased, proud even. I am the same. Except I’m not.  

What is the hope? We run into an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend and s/he curses his stupidity at letting our sillage leave his life?

I have, with some notable interruptions (Iroaz, Eau D’Hadrien, Love in White and now, Ofresia) worn the same perfume for 14.5 years. That perfume is Tiare by Chantecaille. Having a signature scent was of the utmost importance to me. Starting in the fall of ninth grade when I obtained a sample of the perfume while visiting my sister in New York, I was possessive and serious about the way I smelled. My identity was very neatly wrapped up in glass bottle and could be liberally applied. 

But, sometimes you want a change. Sometimes you get bored. Besides, change is constant! Inevitable! And perfumes get REFORMULATED.  First, Tiare disappeared and no one could tell me if it was ever coming back and so I realized that I needed to have some other choices, this was the perfect opportunity to branch out. I wore Iroaz when I got married and the smell brings me back our engagement, wedding day and honeymoon—wonderful memories (the flop sweat generated by seating charts and hemorrhaging money is not detectable).

I sprayed around. And then Tiare came back, in a new bottle and new formula. My parents’ gave it to me for my birthday, I celebrated, I spritzed, I sniffed…and it was almost the same.  But I had been bitten. I had been unfatihful and now I wanted to know what else was out there.

Right now, I usually smell like Ofresia. I’m learning that you can smell different every day, an idea I’ve never subscribed too. How will people recognize you in ten years? By sight?!

My sister was in town for the holidays and starting spraying herself with my Tiare. I almost fainted. To smell how I smelled for years on someone else…there was cognitive dissonance. But I didn’t rush to spritz myself with my old pal. I stayed with my newish scent. Things change. 

-Bridget, who, historically, has been proprietary about perfume.